The invention relates to a garment hanger, particularly adapted for supporting children's clothing, and being encased within a decorative soft toy animal body it can also serve as a toy.
It is known to provide a clothes hanger which simulates at least a portion of an animal, typical examples being shown in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 123,389; 123,392 and 123,396, all being issued to M. B. Dunlap. These designs represent animal's heads and front limbs and appear to be fabricated from a flat sheet of material, and can be provided with a hook for hanging. U.S. Design Pat. No. 60,514 issued to Denivelle, U.S. Design Pat. No. 197,448 issued to Broak, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,614 issued to Brosk, disclose a human form or portion of a human form with shoulders to hang clothing thereon. Denivelle has a sculptured form, but the remaining two devices appear to be fabricated from a thin sheet of stiff material. Each of these designs discloses a hook extending rigidly from the head of the human form for hanging the item.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,447, in which the inventor is Walter, discloses a security garment display stand which provides a complex mechanism to prevent unauthorized removal of garments from a display stand. The hanger has a axially retractable hook which retracts into the body of the hanger. U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,670 issued to Faarbech also discloses a hanger with a retractable hook device, the hook being swingable about a pin passing through a slot in the body of the hook, permitting the hook to move from an obliquely retracted position to an axially extended position to facilitate storage.
None of the garment hanging devices known to the present inventor provides a garment hanger which resembles a soft toy to encourage the child to hang his garments at the end of the day, and which can also be used as a soft toy when not supporting garments.